TESRenewal: Morroblivion, Skywind, Skyblivion - Bringing Morrowind Back to Lifehttp://tesrenewal.com/
enBlog post - December 2016http://tesrenewal.com/blog/blog-post-december-2016
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-fulltext"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p style="text-align:center"><span><span style="font-size:48px; font-family:Arial; font-weight:700">THE ANIMATION QUEST</span></span></p>
<p style="text-align:center"><span><span style="font-family:Arial">By Aerisarn and CuteZergling</span></span></p>
<p style="text-align:center"> </p>
<p><span><span style="font-size:14px; font-family:Arial; font-style:italic">Animation is about creating the illusion of life. And you can't create it if you don't have one. </span></span></p>
<p style="text-align:right"><span><span style="font-size:14px; font-family:Arial">Brad Bird</span></span></p>
<p style="text-align:center"> </p>
<p><span><span style="font-size:14.6667px; font-family:Arial">As all of you can imagine, creating animations for skywind is a real challenging task. The modern Skyrim engine allows for much more than Morrowind’s one was intended to, and making real reinterpretations of the original creatures and game mechanics is both an artistic challenge, for what, if you follow our blog, we’re definitely well equipped, and a technical one, particularly so due to the fact that authoring new content for the skyrim engine was mainly intended for 3d assets and quests, not for animations and whole new creatures.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span style="font-size:14.6667px; font-family:Arial">When I was assigned with the task of modifying the cliff racer behavior, at first I nearly fainted: there were no examples, no documentation, not a simple entry point: How am I supposed to do such a thing without any direction available? It reminded me of some ancient times when I was a kid playing EOB2 (a dungeon game without automapping), for the sole purpose of enjoying the game dynamic itself: try, fail, try harder. And so I did.</span></span></p>
<p style="text-align:center"> </p>
<p><span><span style="font-size:14.6667px; font-family:Arial">This blog post is about the skywind animation team’s journey into the skyrim engine: </span><span style="font-family:Arial"> to explore </span><span style="font-family:Arial; font-weight:700">strange new worlds</span><span style="font-family:Arial">, to seek out </span><span style="font-family:Arial; font-weight:700">new</span><span style="font-family:Arial"> life and </span><span style="font-family:Arial; font-weight:700">new </span><span style="font-family:Arial">animations, to boldly go where no modder has gone before. As we were trying to bend the engine to our will using strange and complicated techniques, we technical artists were called wizards. </span></span></p>
<h2>
<span><span style="font-size:21.3333px; font-family:Arial; font-weight:400">1. The Skeleton Mystery:</span></span></h2>
<p style="text-align:center"><span><span style="font-family:Arial"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/8Q8VjHYF-i6TpVeyyCnglgpq0dehe2v1ttz4H8BP6FLyPu9PtmqEhwIIpXPxAbcz7Rzxq5O9wc0BDlefFDBfAEXjiGwKCoDS5Vm6KAItlbQncAc0X7RdCSHcDEd8yawteiyI-nFf" /></span></span></p>
<p><span><span style="font-family:Arial">Any animated object, creature or placeable, has to be animated defining a set of moving bones which actually performs the movements, being coupled (skinned) to the related mesh. Sadly, no tool was available to us poor modders to do a new skeleton in a sane way: most modders just resort to skeleton morphs (just original bones scaled as less as possible due to animations going nuts). T’was our task to do such a thing, in order to make new creatures truly feasible: after a lot of headaches, a new NIF plugin was born that ensure rapid skeleton prototyping. Here’s a sample:</span></span></p>
<p style="text-align:center"><span><span style="font-family:Arial"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/UnJXJrF9xe0A36YtBJ0qDD1s3-nTe5dygJQFmfz7S2dWzemZHj-TVe5SMw6QbmUfSvdMFC3gPxNzolxw4ZHqWR3XlQ5Ysu33TcIW6R8FgTpZfeEETwlVOIkymDn0FcwupOWwW2XR" /></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align:center"><br />
</p>
<h2>
<span><span style="font-size:21.3333px; font-family:Arial; font-weight:400">2. The Ragdoll Havo(k)c Horror:</span></span></h2>
<p style="text-align:center"><br /><span><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/D8KnW4-wr7_8GKFb9l7lDQcRb3bEpJacIrq-dLUfAxOF_q-QQzHaIcrjS1VW1Sktc6WDRMfAG69V-o4953juuYGmCQbidMlEknb3ZZc1UBWrnRv4sakJWe1Pw1pElDtxyH8_ZAAl" style="float: left; height: 357px; width: 250px;" /></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p><span><span style="font-family:Arial">Skeletal animation is nice, but skywind’s engine allows for much much more: a second skeleton, coupled with a simple version of the creature mesh, to calculate real time moving collisions and physics reaction. Ragdoll, for short, is a physical representation of rigid bodies interconnected by contraints: all that jazz, all that math. Sadly, once again NIF plugin wasn’t up to the task: while able to import collisions, it was never intended to represent the data needed to express, for example, how much the leg is able to rotate with respect to the hip. This time was not just about fixing the output from Max, but creating a whole new import/export routine to add this data to the bone skeleton, and then be able to export it both in the NIF and the HKX format; yes, to make things simpler, Beth decided to replicate this data in both its Gamebyro file format and Havok proprietary format. But Skywind won’t bend to difficulties, and once again, after a LOT of trial and error which made us feel like we were coding our way out of an old haunted house, we were successful. Behold the Cliff Racer ragdoll, in all its glory.</span></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align:center"><span><span style="font-family:Arial"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/dSzdkSrvY4vf9srAn4h11x-R5-rB5-kPpst0nceOXplbgOm7HKGf59aKCCVMZAK5Hv0PYZ9Bzon3LHoi1eeFzKGra00go-yfaUuZlc4EQGPLfte8gardCSrZgsdUk7mxtWwfLHLR" /></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align:center"> </p>
<h2>
<span><span style="font-size:21.3333px; font-family:Arial; font-weight:400">3. To Be is to Behave:</span></span></h2>
<p style="text-align:center"><br /><span><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/oyq6xZ-qv_yIAzk25GLIDO_E_eqQBHTj7AHQbMwEr4XtwVUJOYqpe63EbWy7sWvGOMlkuqfmvK-b68aDsF_1NZfWjfYpK7oh9xizlLg1Fx-WbmoZo4kLHijCj9NZkoNRVYmKL7L1" style="float: left;" /></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p><span><span style="font-family:Arial">In our journey into the undocumented, we reached the point where the animations have to be glued together to the game logic to make the creature move, attack, ando so on. The skyrim engine use the Havok Behavior middleware to decouple game logic from animation logic, and these behaviors have posed quite the challenge to us wizards and to the community at large, testing our every drop of patience and resolve trying to understand how they are defined and how they work. Behaviors are, simply put, a collection finite machines that govern which animation will be played at a given time or event. Since no tools or documentation has been provided by Bethesda regarding how animations actually work in Skyrim, we had no other choice but to reverse engineer our way into the Havok project files, relying on trial and error and Hansel &amp; Gretel tactics.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="text-align:center; font-family:Arial">The problem with the behavior files was that they were compressed into an unreadable/ unintelligible </span>Win32<span style="text-align:center; font-family:Arial"> binary format, so we were forced to convert those to XML, a format that is much more understandable in comparison. After conversion though, editing the behavior files manually posed a great risk of error ( a behavior XML file easily goes over </span>2K<span style="text-align:center; font-family:Arial"> lines), that’s why </span>Aerisarn<span style="text-align:center; font-family:Arial">, the master wizard, wrote a library in Java that was specifically designed to navigate, edit and view the tree in the XML file with ease and eliminated all worry of error … at least from editing the tree part. Working with behaviors, and coding in general for that matter is summed up quite well by the Gif below.</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center"><span><span style="font-family:Arial"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/5tcFkZIF4QqgoG40XnVj_RQ0gccvQtsgMt40ByOLjodPDH8vVgQANoQhckN229ZE8n0sl2nprWaPZf-Iqz6-WvNC6_95p5TLLufUS7-QHHNFjclgZvOKXuvgM30YTSc4vQHwQwc_" /></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Why? Because when something goes wrong, you don’t really know what causes it and when you finally fix it, other problems arise where previously there were none … and the cycle continues.</span></p>
<p><span style="text-align:center; font-family:Arial">But, creating behaviors for custom races, in essence, isn’t that complicated: we base our new creature on an existing </span>Skyrim<span style="text-align:center; font-family:Arial"> skeleton / behavior and then add or remove certain animations from the behavior file. That’s how our Guar was born; even if not perfect, we successfully edited an existing behavior to make the puppy behave (almost as intended).</span></p>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align:center"> </p>
<p style="text-align:center"><span><span style="font-family:Arial"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/cuGKf9oeNZL2JGJMv2-Ccar200n1siDy7HpPE6EqYFugsYp9hic_bEMI8LTgU_3TgJqXu72q5zLGJhxyC3X3hZXUy03h3y3tR9M0lOTKuV97MhdCJAm9CH6KcQ9Q40irFNNpm3hc" /></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align:center"> </p>
<p><span><span style="font-family:Arial">That was not enough for our artists: some of the creatures we need require not only a custom skeleton, but a custom behavior as well; that’s why our research team went further and adapted the output of an old version of the Havok Behavior tool to Skyrim, to accommodate for completely new behaviors as well.</span></span></p>
<p style="text-align:center"> </p>
<p style="text-align:center"><span><span style="font-family:Arial"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-0l7t1lv8kXpWM_ZEy6jcsP5VO99K0wZKCbNbC5Yz99wQqZKp3YZuz91hiXHzZvibxPNgzz0X4Gv55uY-uri_GOungu_V6IjGeCqMQW3_nuVkRW7DqAtVRMgFqYOsfBptNGcA4tZ" /></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align:center"> </p>
<p><span><span style="font-family:Arial">With such tool in our hands, we felt like our journey was complete, but…</span></span></p>
<h2>
<span><span style="font-size:21.3333px; font-family:Arial; font-weight:400">4. Did we miss something?</span></span></h2>
<h2>
<span><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/nyHLSEHxdofnNjSGAcgKef1jwmUOUnvjhTl4-E9FJJeIDr0lxpUas1ajxCl4ORHTdkHV6ZYMsvrV6_s-ThVM4odbW_FiOWBpQ0btMdnuIW6qqFOt_7yWy-9HoFCD9qKxsRSqdInV" style="float: left; height: 278px; width: 200px;" /></span></h2>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p><span><span style="font-size:14.6667px; font-family:Arial">If you’re an animator, or simply searched the depths of the net about new animations in skywind, you surely found out the problem: where is the movement data in skyrim’s animations? Using the famous hkx-cmd, the data is (almost) missing. </span></span></p>
<p><span><span style="font-size:14.6667px; font-family:Arial">After much pain, we discovered that the data is… </span><span style="font-size:28px; font-family:Arial">Elsweyr.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14.6667px; font-family:Arial">Bethesda surely rushed over the commercialization of the game enough to leave some things in disarray, animations particularly so. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px;">In the last months of 2016, we solved this mystery too, and we were able to test a creature from scratch, without the need of additional help like </span>SKSE<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px;">, </span>FNIS<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px;"> or such.</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center"><br /><br />
</p>
<h2>
...and what now?</h2>
<p><span><span style="font-size:14.6667px; font-family:Arial">2017 will be a very exciting year for our department; our wizards are working tirelessly to give animators a leaner workflow and to change the way the game itself is played, acting on the player behavior. We have now the means to innovate as much as possible the gaming experience and insert all kinds of contents, and we are very determined to do so.</span></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span><span style="font-size:14.6667px; font-family:Arial">We leave you with a little clip. Happy New Year, folks :)</span></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oqg3NKKt934" width="560"></iframe></p>
</div></div></div>Sat, 31 Dec 2016 15:15:48 +0000aerisarn11858 at http://tesrenewal.comBlog post - September 2016http://tesrenewal.com/blog/blog-post-september-2016
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-fulltext"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:40px; font-family:Arial">Making music for Skywind</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center"><span style="font-family:Arial">by Matt Hawken with additional contribution from Marius Schlichting</span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-family:Ubuntu">Jeremy Soule’s original soundtrack to Morrowind echoed the alien landscapes and creatures of Vvardenfell with a complex and mysterious score, combining the sonorities of a symphonic orchestra with the tonal complexities of early 20th-Century Impressionist music. Morrowind’s soundtrack has become a classic and for Skywind’s music team, this is a tough act to follow! However, we’ve assembled a crack team including several professional musicians and composers and we’re ready for the challenge.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Ubuntu;">For the full nostalgia experience, </span>Skywind<span style="font-family: Ubuntu;"> will also include the </span>remastered<span style="font-family: Ubuntu;"> </span>Morrowind<span style="font-family: Ubuntu;"> explore music which is packaged with the </span>Dragonborn<span style="font-family: Ubuntu;"> </span>DLC<span style="font-family: Ubuntu;"> for </span>Skyrim<span style="font-family: Ubuntu;"> (</span>Dragonborn<span style="font-family: Ubuntu;"> </span>DLC<span style="font-family: Ubuntu;"> is necessary for the </span>Skywind<span style="font-family: Ubuntu;"> installation), allowing you to explore </span>Vvardenfell<span style="font-family: Ubuntu;"> with the original soundtrack accompanying your travels, alongside our new creations.</span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-family: Ubuntu;">Here are a few of the ways we’re making the most of </span>Skyrim’s<span style="font-family: Ubuntu;"> Creation Engine to update, adapt and expand the music of </span>Morrowind<span style="font-family: Ubuntu;">:</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Ubuntu; font-weight: 700;">Longer</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Ubuntu">Sadly, due to technical restrictions of the time Morrowind’s score is not as broad and deep as its gameplay. As the entire game needed to fit on a single CD-ROM, the soundtrack was limited to 45 minutes in length. </span><span style="font-family: Ubuntu;">Fortunately, in </span>Skywind<span style="font-family: Ubuntu;"> we have no such restrictions! Although we are still a long way off </span>finalising<span style="font-family: Ubuntu;"> the length of the soundtrack, we hope to come close to, or even surpass, </span>Skyrim’s<span style="font-family: Ubuntu;"> 3-hour running time.</span></p>
<p><strong>Localised music</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Ubuntu">We’re taking advantage of the Skyrim engine’s ability to play specific tracks in certain regions. Now the soundtrack will shift as you travel the varied landscapes of Vvardenfell, taking you from gentle strings in the Ascadian Isles to tribal drums in the Ashlands.</span></p>
<p><a href="https://soundcloud.com/matthawken/grazelands?in=tesrskywindofficial/sets/skywindsubmissions" rel="nofollow"><span style="font-family:Ubuntu; text-decoration:underline">https://soundcloud.com/matthawken/grazelands?in=tesrskywindofficial/sets/skywindsubmissions</span></a></p>
<p><a href="https://soundcloud.com/marius-schlichting/zafirbel-bay" rel="nofollow"><span style="font-family:Ubuntu; text-decoration:underline">https://soundcloud.com/marius-schlichting/zafirbel-bay</span></a></p>
<p><a href="https://soundcloud.com/trolldragomir-1/ashlander-warsong-1" rel="nofollow"><span style="font-family:Ubuntu; text-decoration:underline">https://soundcloud.com/trolldragomir-1/ashlander-warsong-1</span></a></p>
<p><a href="https://soundcloud.com/tim-grabowski/northern-archipelago-skywind" rel="nofollow"><span style="font-family:Ubuntu; text-decoration:underline">https://soundcloud.com/tim-grabowski/northern-archipelago-skywind</span></a></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-family: Ubuntu; font-weight: 700;">Discovery stingers</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Ubuntu">Another musical feature introduced in Skyrim are short pieces of music which play when you arrive in certain areas for the first time. We are creating unique ‘discovery stingers’ to herald your arrival in many of Skywind’s locations.</span></p>
<p><a href="https://soundcloud.com/matthawken/disembarking-in-seyda-neen-2?in=tesrskywindofficial/sets/skywindsubmissions" rel="nofollow"><span style="font-family:Ubuntu; text-decoration:underline">https://soundcloud.com/matthawken/disembarking-in-seyda-neen-2?in=tesrskywindofficial/sets/skywindsubmissions</span></a></p>
<p><a href="https://soundcloud.com/tim-grabowski/discovering-sadrith-mora?in=tesrskywindofficial/sets/skywindsubmissions" rel="nofollow"><span style="font-family:Ubuntu; text-decoration:underline">https://soundcloud.com/tim-grabowski/discovering-sadrith-mora?in=tesrskywindofficial/sets/skywindsubmissions</span></a></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-family: Ubuntu; font-weight: 700;">Towns &amp; Cities</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Ubuntu">It’s not just the landscapes that are varied in Morrowind - each town around the island has a distinct flavour and history. In Skywind, each of the larger settlements will have their own soundtrack for both day and night time.</span></p>
<p><a href="https://soundcloud.com/fredrik-jonasson/skywind-official-soundtrack-canton-commerce?in=tesrskywindofficial/sets/skywindsubmissions" rel="nofollow"><span style="font-family:Ubuntu; text-decoration:underline">https://soundcloud.com/fredrik-jonasson/skywind-official-soundtrack-canton-commerce?in=tesrskywindofficial/sets/skywindsubmissions</span></a></p>
<p><a href="https://soundcloud.com/matthawken/seyda-neen-wip" rel="nofollow"><span style="font-family:Ubuntu; text-decoration:underline">https://soundcloud.com/matthawken/seyda-neen-wip</span></a></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-family: Ubuntu; font-weight: 700;">Dungeons, Caves &amp; Tombs</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Ubuntu">Going underground, we’re writing some spooky and mysterious music for the hidden depths of Skywind.</span></p>
<p><a href="https://soundcloud.com/matthawken/dungeon-1?in=tesrskywindofficial/sets/skywindsubmissions" rel="nofollow"><span style="font-family:Ubuntu; text-decoration:underline">https://soundcloud.com/matthawken/dungeon-1?in=tesrskywindofficial/sets/skywindsubmissions</span></a></p>
<p><a href="https://soundcloud.com/marius-schlichting/a-lake-deep-down-cave-music" rel="nofollow"><span style="font-family:Ubuntu; text-decoration:underline">https://soundcloud.com/marius-schlichting/a-lake-deep-down-cave-music</span></a></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-family:Ubuntu; font-weight:700">Combat</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Ubuntu">Of course, you’re not just going to be exploring peacefully. Although combat isn’t yet implemented in testing, we’re hoping to replicate Skyrim’s adaptive battle music so the music will rise as your enemies fall!</span></p>
<p><a href="https://soundcloud.com/fredrik-jonasson/skywind-dance-of-death?in=tesrskywindofficial/sets/skywindsubmissions" rel="nofollow"><span style="font-family:Ubuntu; text-decoration:underline">https://soundcloud.com/fredrik-jonasson/skywind-dance-of-death?in=tesrskywindofficial/sets/skywindsubmissions</span></a></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Ubuntu; text-decoration:underline"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/marius-schlichting/battle-music?in=tesrskywindofficial/sets/skywindsubmissions" rel="nofollow">https://soundcloud.com/marius-schlichting/battle-music?in=tesrskywindofficial/sets/skywindsubmissions</a></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-family:Ubuntu; font-weight:700">And more...</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Ubuntu">Alongside the main soundtrack there will be ambient music to accompany your adventures in Vvardenfell, just like the ‘Atmospheres’ from Skywind’s soundtrack. We’re also writing unique music for guilds, forts, taverns, temples and even Vivec cantons, as well as short songs for characters to sing in game. </span></p>
<p><br /><span style="font-family: Ubuntu; font-weight: 700;">Follow our progress!</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Ubuntu">You can listen to all the music submissions for the game as we create them at the project’s Soundcloud: </span><a href="https://soundcloud.com/tesrskywindofficial" rel="nofollow"><span style="font-family:Ubuntu; text-decoration:underline">soundcloud.com/tesrskywindofficial</span></a><span style="font-family:Ubuntu"> - however please bear in mind that all these tracks are subject to approval, edits and final mix/mastering. We hope you enjoy listening!</span></p>
<p><br />
</p>
<p><span style="font-family:Ubuntu; font-weight:700">How is it done?</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Ubuntu"><strong>Matt H: </strong>I use a 2013 Mac Pro with 64 GB of RAM, which sounds like a lot but can quickly get eaten up when you're loading a symphony orchestra's worth of audio samples. I run the latest versions of OS X and Logic Pro because I like to feel like I'm on the cutting edge! And I listen on a pair of Focal CMS-65s which help me create mixes that translate well on other systems, which might be laptops or headphones for most people. I really enjoy my little studio set-up but it did take a while to accumulate everything. My first piece of advice for anyone who wants to work in music production is to get a decent paying job first because it's an expensive hobby, although it's getting cheaper all the time.</span></p>
<p> </p>
<p class="rtecenter"><iframe align="middle" class="imgur-album" frameborder="1" height="550" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/76b9l1sV4h4" width="556px"></iframe></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Ubuntu">When creating realistic orchestral music from samples, there are two sides to the process. The old-school part is writing appropriately for the instruments and orchestrating effectively. I'm lucky to play several instruments and have a degree in composition and orchestration so I've had the chance to be trained by some great people, but it's a lifetime's work and I'm definitely still beginning! The new-school part is the production - making choices about reverb, EQ, panning, compression and much more.</span></p>
<p><strong>Marius S:</strong> <span style="font-size: medium; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif;">Well, there isn’t much to add to the description of proper music writing vs. technology that Matt wrote above.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">I personally try hard to not succumb to the DAW when creating a composition. That simply means I try to keep and develop the fundaments of the music outside of the computer first (sometimes more than other times). Well, I also don’t have/use a modwheel or such so when I record midi I have to use my imagination for the important dynamics/expressions anyway. </span></font></font><span style="font-size: medium; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif;">When you use a music program you do not have to bother with traditional efforts like writing down all the notes and can just create music purely by ear. That also means you can quickly make mistakes when it comes to proper good writing for the orchestra. After all, the best sounding synthetic orchestra is the one that is very close to what you would write for real musicians!</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"> </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">So I always start off with on the piano and end up with fundamental sketches or full ideas. However, sometimes it’s nice to have a computer that makes it possible to go beyond you own imagination that lets you test out new textures and such.</span></font></font></p>
<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom: 0cm" xml:lang="en-US"> </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">I’d like to show you a comparison of a piano idea turned into the intro of the final piece. In this case it is music for daedric interiors. To give you ideas what concerned me for this: fitting atmosphere, unique instrument textures, skyrim-esque synths, ambiguous tonalities... and so on.</span></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3"><span lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US">It’s more of an ambient sound compared to mainland tracks, but maybe it’s still interesting to hear.</span></font></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm"> </p>
<p class="rtecenter" style="margin-bottom: 0cm"><iframe align="middle" class="imgur-album" frameborder="1" height="550" scrolling="no" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ooIB69G9kD8" width="556px"></iframe></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-family:Ubuntu">Matt Hawken is a full-time composer and musician living just outside London, UK. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Ubuntu"><a href="http://www.matthawkenmusic.com/" rel="nofollow">www.matthawkenmusic.com</a> / </span><a href="https://soundcloud.com/matthawken" rel="nofollow"><span style="font-family:Ubuntu">soundcloud.com/matthawken</span></a></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Ubuntu">Marius Schlichting is a full-time composer and musician from Germany.</span></p>
<p><a href="https://soundcloud.com/marius-schlichting">https://soundcloud.com/marius-schlichting</a></p>
<p> </p>
</div></div></div>Thu, 29 Sep 2016 23:51:39 +0000Matt Hawken11688 at http://tesrenewal.comBlog post - August 2016http://tesrenewal.com/blog/blog-post-august-2016
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-fulltext"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size: 40px; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent;">Skywind Cavemen</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center"><span style="font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent;">by CyanideExpress and Oppenheimer</span></p>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-indent:36pt"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent;">Hello Everyone, and welcome back! Over the past few months much of the landscaping team has been busy making caves for Skywind, and we have made a great amount of progress. As you may know, caves made up a large portion of interior dungeons in Morrowind, and we are working to recreate them while still maintaining the original designs and ideas of the caves, while also expanding upon them. As such, we have designed four different types of caves depending on the region of Morrowind which the cave is in. Those include Mold for the west coast caves, Volcanic for Molag Amur and the Ashlands, Shale for the Sheogorad region, and Basalt for the East Coast. Each type should feel different, and be appropriate for the climate and design of the exterior world. </span></p>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-indent:36pt"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent;">With Skywind, we have had to recreate caves from scratch as Morrowind used many different and unique room meshes for its cave system. It was not really feasible for our 3D artists to recreate all of these unique pieces, so instead a flexible tileset was designed and built by TwentyEngineRunner. This tileset is the basis for all of our caves in Skywind, while the different variants use different textures and clutter. Our process begins with the original cave from Morrowind. We look at the design of these old caves, and it’s up to the particular landscaper on how they want to recreate the old layout using our new tileset system. </span></p>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; background-color: transparent;">An Example of a layout from Morrowind</span></p>
<p style="text-indent:36pt"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent;">Sometimes parts of the original design have to be changed or tweaked slightly to work with our tileset, or to play better within Skyrim’s engine, but in this instance it did not need to be altered since it is a simple cave. Sometimes less interesting caves are also expanded on, or made a bit grander to really show the enhanced abilities of our tileset and cluttering assets. But we always try our best to stay true to Morrowind. </span></p>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent;"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/LUTnzzu1KW9DMklhfw1tb_pWV9xAvBGD-5n4rIy_SVm4irApHpNE03bA0rtNQ0xOBmzXb_2qDXOzDWiIwS4G8g--xLSQ6DUoEhzc9oAdQ8KsJ7hF5AY8XRwS_WuPwmSJwzM04GlH" /><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Ra76TIe10mzxCYZsOWgP8NQNnSgm4g2cuoDF3uk_g7bEhNlIdY6Wt8_6jbHHCUM_nuWuUyNPVnKpt6R-48BFOXb9AjgSHfhpPAp-rbe0GoxL7IHRVgFzoIlqIW7Rof2FlOjJAEPC" /></span></p>
<p style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; background-color: transparent;">Example of a finished Skywind cave</span></p>
<p> </p>
<p style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/z8wwNSbGLS7Xzq81Kqk68-KLrygYxiI_MvsN9Mj8UO5ewDgC_GwBRMkQ2vEVi-2OGAhoAoNeOnXHRUYRZahg0kWiBriNxG1xMLgCaFLnc63DgsZjbigXSd8UX7cIBUF9YIKDYK_I" /></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent;">This is generally how a cave will begin, it starts with a basic layout with “Rooms” and hallways that connect them. Most of the time spent on caves is working to make these rooms unique and interesting, while still matching the general shapes of the original morrowind rooms. We do this by using rocks, cliffs, rock piles, and rock walls, and the end product is designed to feel organic and natural. And of course, we need to make sure the loot and enemy placement is balanced and matches Morrowind. But gameplay is still a big work in progress, and things are subject to change.</span></p>
<p style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: Arial; font-weight: 700; background-color: transparent;">Examples of Cave Types</span></p>
<p class="rtecenter"><iframe align="middle" class="imgur-album" frameborder="1" height="550" scrolling="no" src="//imgur.com/a/ioRRr/embed" width="556px"></iframe></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.5; background-color: transparent;">These are some examples of the different types of caves that will be present in </span>Skywind<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.5; background-color: transparent;">, some elements are subject to change, such as lighting, image spaces, and textures of the </span>tileset<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.5; background-color: transparent;"> and cave clutter. The Shale cave type is still early in development as well as Basalt. </span>Kwama<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 1.5; background-color: transparent;"> Caves and Sixth House caves are coming soon as well, so stay tuned! We hope you enjoyed this highlight on caves, and we’ll be back to talk about other exciting new things our team is working on next month!</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent;">Until then...</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: Arial; background-color: transparent;"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/WZF0KEy.png" /></span></p>
</div></div></div>Thu, 25 Aug 2016 00:31:26 +0000CyanideExpress11624 at http://tesrenewal.comSKYWIND PUBLIC CHAT ON DISCORDhttp://tesrenewal.com/content/skywind-public-chat-on-discord
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-fulltext"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Over the last several months Skywind developers have adopted Discord as our primary means for real-time development and department communications. We've noticed a drastic improvement in our workflow and have largely abandoned using the TESrenewal chat here on the website. TESrenewal will soon be downgrading chat support here but would like to invite anyone curious about the project to visit our <a href="https://discord.gg/0oOzg2qbwpmAwxb3" rel="nofollow">Discord server </a>for any questions regarding the project, joining the team, or catch sneak peaks into the development process. <a href="https://discord.gg/0oOzg2qbwpmAwxb3" rel="nofollow">Come join us!</a></p>
<p> </p>
</div></div></div>Fri, 17 Jun 2016 20:52:04 +0000Taerkalith11485 at http://tesrenewal.comSkywind on Social Mediahttp://tesrenewal.com/content/skywind-on-social-media
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-fulltext"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p style="text-align:center">Check out and follow TESRenewal through your favorite social media.</p>
<p style="text-align:center"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/TESRSkywind/" rel="nofollow"><img src="/files/st_fb_0.png" /></a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/TESRSkywindOfficial" rel="nofollow"> <img src="/files/st_yt_0.png" /></a> <a href="https://twitter.com/TESRSkywind" rel="nofollow"> <img src="/files/st_tw_0.png" /></a> <a href="http://vk.com/tesrenewal" rel="nofollow"><img src="/files/st_vk_0.png" /></a> <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/skywind/" rel="nofollow"><img src="/files/st_rd_0.png" /></a><a href="https://soundcloud.com/tesrskywindofficial" rel="nofollow"><img src="/files/st_sc_0.png" /></a> <a href="http://tesrenewalskywind.deviantart.com/" rel="nofollow"><img src="/files/st_da_0.png" /></a> <a href="http://www.twitch.tv/tesr_skywind" rel="nofollow"><img src="/files/st_tv_0.png" /></a></p>
</div></div></div>Fri, 30 Jan 2015 16:07:25 +0000Mace10317 at http://tesrenewal.comSkywind Development Video Serieshttp://tesrenewal.com/content/skywind-development-video-series
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-fulltext"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Please watch our development video series to get the best idea about what Skywind, the development team and community behind the game is all about.</p>
<p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" scrolling="no" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/PewuaPKnhnc" width="100%"></iframe><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" scrolling="no" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Ql3FNCrYkGU" width="100%"></iframe><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" scrolling="no" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/CpUMteCdO8M" width="100%"></iframe><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" scrolling="no" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/1jmYgaZTQLc" width="100%"></iframe></p>
</div></div></div>Sat, 24 Jan 2015 21:10:15 +0000grumpycat10298 at http://tesrenewal.comWelcomehttp://tesrenewal.com/welcome-0
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-fulltext"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p style="text-align:center"><img src="https://tesrenewal.com/files/thermador/images/Banner_Border.gif" /> </p>
<p style="text-align:center">Welcome to TESRenewal Project, a community about merging the amazing worlds of The Elder Scrolls video games into more modern game engines.</p>
<p style="text-align:center; font-weight:bold;">Join our <a href="https://discord.gg/0oOzg2qbwpmAwxb3" target="_blank">Skywind Discord Chat</a> and our <a href=https://discord.gg/ZYmpMkt" target="_blank">Skyblivion Discord Chat</a>!</p>
<p style="text-align:center">If you&#39;re looking to join the project, please check out our <a href="https://tesrenewal.com/forums/recruitment/read-first-how-to-apply-to-join-skywind-team">volunteer hub</a>!</p>
<p style="text-align:center">Use the links on the left side to navigate. Questions? Read the <a href="http://tesrenewal.com/skywind-faq">Skywind FAQ</a> and <a href="http://tesrenewal.com/faq">Morroblivion FAQ</a>!</p>
</div></div></div>Tue, 20 Jan 2015 00:48:54 +0000thermador2977 at http://tesrenewal.comMorroblivion v064 Released!http://tesrenewal.com/content/morroblivion-v064-released
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-fulltext"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><a href="http://tesrenewal.com/forums/morroblivion/mods/753"><img src="/files/qwertyasdfgh/images/mw_Splash05.jpg" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://tesrenewal.com/forums/morroblivion/mods/753"><strong>Click here for details</strong></a></p>
</div></div></div>Thu, 20 Nov 2014 13:30:12 +0000qwertyasdfgh9602 at http://tesrenewal.comSkyblivion v0.1 Released!http://tesrenewal.com/skyblivion-v01-released
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-fulltext"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><span style="text-align:center;"><img src="https://tesrenewal.com/files/thermador/images/ScreenShot58.jpg" /></span></p>
<p><a href="http://morroblivion.com/forums/skyrim/skyblivion-mod-releases/4122" rel="nofollow"><strong style="font-size:1em">Skyblivion&nbsp;v0.1 Released - click here!</strong></a></p>
</div></div></div>Fri, 22 Mar 2013 13:31:40 +0000zilav4875 at http://tesrenewal.com